Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen Last week, the senior bureaucrat who reviewed building regulation for the NSW Government warned that defects in the 34-storey Opal Tower at Sydney’s Olympic Park “are likely just the tip of the iceberg”.

By Leith van Onselen The Coalition plans to target 270,000 young renters in Australia’s 25 most marginal seats in the lead-up to the next election, believing that Labor’s plans to curb negative gearing could prove a vote winner for the federal government.

By Leith van Onselen The Howard Government’s decision to allow self-managed super funds (SMSFs) to leverage into property and other investments was a mistake.

Via The Guardian: The senior bureaucrat who reviewed building regulation for the New South Wales government has condemned the lack of action on his 2015 report, warning the defects in the Opal Tower at Sydney’s Olympic Park “are likely just the tip of the iceberg”.

Drip, drip, drip: “The decision to increase interest rates is never easy.

This time GAP: Shade cloths for housing.

Via the FT today: Free iPads, rental guarantees and an eye-watering A$100,000 ($72,000) off the price of an apartment are some of the sweeteners on offer from property developers amid the worst housing downturn in Australia for 35 years.

Via FTAlphaville: From Sydney to New York to London, it is not uncommon to find renters praying for a collapse in house prices.

Via The Australian comes KPMG catching the falling knife: Peak-to-trough adjustments in dwelling prices are expected to be minus 12.9 per cent in Sydney and minus 4.5 per cent in Melbourne.

From the ANZ/Property Council March QTR survey of property industry insiders: I would like to bring you more but the results seemed to have so horrified the Property Council that they’ve not uploaded the documents.

Via Martin North: Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) has released the December 2018 mortgage stress and default analysis update.

A fairly positive day on equity markets across Asia in response to the solid uptick on Wall Street overnight, although caution reigns as the US China trade talks get underway so Chinese shares are slowly retreating as Yuan appreciates against USD.

Via SQM: Figures released today by SQM Research reveal national residential listings declined 9.2% in December 2018 to 328,203 from 361,619 in November 2018, with stock on market dropping in all cities as is expected during the festive and summer break.

Via Morgan Stanley today on property prices and the economy: With entrenched weakness across all aspects of the market, 2019 looks unlikely to hold an improvement.

Via The Australian: Shifting his focus from Bill Shorten’s proposal to limit negative gearing to new dwellings and the “retiree tax”, the Treasurer yesterday cited government analysis that showed Australians would be taxed up to 36.75 per cent on their capital gains under Labor’s policy, up from 23.5 per cent now.

Via the AFR: About 900,000 loans – or about one in six mortgages based on the nation’s $1.7 trillion mortgage loan book – will need to be extended with their existing lenders, switched to higher principal-and-interest repayments or transferred to a new lender.

Via Livewiremarkets comes Philip Hofflin at Lazard: The critical financial issue in the Australian economy at present is clearly the possible economic effect of the decline in home prices.